Hi Tweeters,

I hiked along the Pacific Crest Trail yesterday (Wed.) from the Rainy Pass trial head to where it intersects the Cutthroat Trail (at Cutthroat Pass) with hiking buddy Mark (who did not know that it was really a birding hike). The trail head is in the vacinity of mile marker 160, give or take a few miles. My target species was the Three-toed Woodpecker, which we did not see. In fact, there was not a single woodpecker sighted during the whole walk (I heard a distant N. Flicker). I'll try a couple of weeks earlier next summer. At the summit we found a couple of Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches, one of which called from the top of a dead tree during all of our half-hour lunch stop. Having only seen this species once before for a total of five seconds, this was a great sighting for me. It had landed on a tree that was already occupied by a female American Kestrel, which sat on a branch about 5 ft. lower and ignored the finch the whole time that we were there. In fact, I had both!
of the
m in the scope at the same time. There were also some very friendly Mountain Goats in the area. Other species of birds that we saw include several Hermit Thrushes, either singing or asking each other 'Zwee?', 1 Varied Thrush, a number of Swainson's Thrushes were heard in the lower elevations, a probable female Calliope Hummingbird (it could have been a Black-chinned; it zoomed by us very briefly), and Mountain Chickadees, among others. We also came across a track of a Cougar (hind foot) in the mud along the trail. As usual, there was at least half a dozen bird calls that I could not ID.

The trail is about 5 miles up (an elevation gain, I believe, of 2,000 ft.) and, of course, 5 miles back down. The path crosses a creek numerous times, and a few of the lower crossings are a bit hairy at the moment. The biting insects are swarming and voracious; I felt like a free food sample at Costco. On the plus side, the meadows are filled with large number of flowers of numerous species. Even the Salmonberries were just starting to flower. Butterflies were everywhere. Best of all, for me, were the amazing views from the top of the ridge.

We also checked out the Rainy Pass picnic grounds across Highway 20 from the trail head. No woodpeckers, but we did see 3 Black Swifts flying overhead. On the way back, we saw a herd of 30 or so Elk.

Good birding,

Lonnie Somer
Olympia, WA
wheelermombi at comcast.net